Frank Williams steps down from Williams board

[Duke]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97786

The Williams team has announced Frank Williams is to step down from the board, with his daughter Claire joining from next month.

Williams made it clear, however, that he will continue to be team principal for the squad that bears his name.

But he said it is time for him to start the process of handing over the reins of the team since he will turn 70 next month.

Although plans seem to be gradually going into place to hand over the running of Williams, you get the feeling he should have done this some years ago.

Frank mentions Adam Parr a lot in the interview with F1 Racing this month, so looks like he could take over as principle soon.

 

[Skeeter]

Yeah just finished reading F1 Racing this morning and Frank didn't make any mention of stepping down in that.

 

[~Mike~]

Frank mentions Adam Parr a lot in the interview with F1 Racing this month, so looks like he could take over as principle soon.

I thought that as well after reading the interview. He talks very highly of him. Good interview.

 

[Skeeter]

Frank may speak highly of him, but other articles in F1 Racing suggested that people have a love/hate relationship with him, and also questioned the abilities of a businessman to head up an F1 team (I think the comments came from DC).

 

[GravyMonster]

Worked OK for Flav (for a while) and his only experience was selling wool knit jumpers.

Personally I find Parr to be the slimy, arse covering type who seems only in it for personal gain. Quite why FW has put so much faith in him remains to be seen.

 

[Ysmalari]

Not just me then, every time I see Parr it makes my skin crawl.
It may bear no relation but it seems to me that Parr's arrival seemed to coincide with Williams rapid decline in recent seasons.
I think it should have been him and not Sam Michael that got the axe last year.

 

[~Mike~]

Interesting Frank Williams interview.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8874001.stm

 

[arknor]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97786

you get the feeling he should have done this some years ago.
.

yea about 15-20 years ago...

they could have been the mclaren of formula one if only he wasnt such a tight arse refusing to pay the world champions what they were worth

 

[~Mike~]

yea about 15-20 years ago...

Why?

they could have been the mclaren of formula one if only he wasnt such a tight arse refusing to pay the world champions what they were worth

If they had the McLaren budget maybe.

 

[Duke]

Easy to say now but the best time would have been to let BMW buy it back in the early-mid 2000s, which is when they started to decline.

 

[arknor]

Why?



If they had the McLaren budget maybe.

they used to have a big budget when they were winning championships.. they choose to let drivers go rather than pay them a champions salary like other teams did.

its not exactly attractive to sponsors to see every WDC leave williams and go elsewhere

 

[dannyjo22]

they used to have a big budget when they were winning championships.. they choose to let drivers go rather than pay them a champions salary like other teams did.

its not exactly attractive to sponsors to see every WDC leave williams and go elsewhere

Like who? Who did they choose to let go rather than pay them a champions wage? Which champions did they lose?

Adam parr is the new Craig pollock.

 

[Skeeter]

There is more to a team than just paying through the nose for a WDC driver.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Like who? Who did they choose to let go rather than pay them a champions wage? Which champions did they lose?

Adam parr is the new Craig pollock.

Damon Hill? Although many will argue that they thought Frentzen the better driver anyway (quite clearly not the case).

 

[dannyjo22]

There is more to a team than just paying through the nose for a WDC driver.

Exactly.

Damon Hill? Although many will argue that they thought Frentzen the better driver anyway (quite clearly not the case).

The decision to drop Hill was taken in 95 when he made a complete fist of the title in arguably a better car. When he had a car that was class of the field in 96 a rookie ran him close, validating their opinion that they didn't need to spend the 10 plus million Hill was demanding (In excess of 1/4 of their budget at the time). Had Hill agreed to stay for the same money we will never know if they would have even kept him then.

They clearly made the right decision because they then won the title in 97 anyway, the last time they would have a challenger.

They didn't lose Villeneuve over money, they offered him more than BAR in the end, Williams has stated that many times. Not that it would have mattered too many other mistakes in the organisation prevented them from winning again.

At that period in history Williams built the cars everyone wanted to race in. They were of the opinion they put a competent driver in and their engineering did the rest. They saw no reason to pay 10 million when they won titles with drivers on 3 million.

Williams sadly are a spent force, short of getting Newey back to work for a tenth of his current wages they are royally screwed.

 

[Indy500]

They clearly made the right decision because they then won the title in 97 anyway, the last time they would have a challenger.

Williams was already considering HHF after Senna's death, but he was loyal to Sauber.

As for 1997, luckily for them Irvine was complete crap in the second Ferrari dicing with backmarkers, otherwise Frentzen's lacklustre results would have cost Williams the WCC. Even DH's poor 1995 was still four wins and five podiums. JV could count himself lucky that he inherited wins, and MSc kept getting tangled up in first corner crashes.